The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, famously possessing even an endemic species of seal. Yet did you know it used to be far, far larger? During much of the Pleistocene, its area more than doubled. It even seems to have until quite recently housed whales. 
Dolphin-fossils are known from the Quaternary of the Caspian, and artistic evidence in the form of the Gobustan Rock Art, dating to between 5-20kya, seems to portray some large marine mammal. Also seabirds, plausible guillemots, seem evidenced
Also the origin of the Caspian seal is something of a mystery. It, along with the equally isolated Baikal seal, seems to have radiated around the late Pliocene, just at the start of the Ice Age, but how exactly it got there is, as with the dolphins, a great mystery.
The Caspian has long been noted for the presence there of a unique and peculiar community of marine species with seemingly Arctic affinities. Recent molecular evidence indicates that these likewise arose before the Middle Pleistocene - interesting in light of the whales
If there have not been any evident connections between the Caspian and the global seas since the Pliocene, the Late Pleistocene whales, if present, must have been a continuous presence. If not ephemeral, where did they go?
Some petroglyphs may portray scenes of whaling.
Some petroglyphs may portray scenes of whaling.
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